10 Unsolved Mysteries Of Science

The origin of life, strange noises from space, and the nature of time are just some of the unsolved mysteries of science included on this list. Science is the activity of trying to study the world through observation and experiment. Overtime scientists have slowly been unravelling the mysteries of the universe, but there are still some unsolved mysteries of science. These will likely all be solved eventually, but until then they’ll continue to be mysteries. This is a list of 10 unsolved mysteries of science.

Where Is Dark Matter?

Dark matter is a type of matter distinct from dark matter, baryonic matter, and neutrinos. It’s called dark matter because it can’t interact with light or other types of electromagnetic radiation. It also can’t emit electromagnetic radiation. It’s impossible to see dark matter, but several factors point towards it’s existence. These factors include gravitational lensing, it’s influence on the universe’s large-scale structure and it’s effects in the cosmic microwave background. A large portion of the matter in the universe is made of dark matter, but what exactly is it made of. Some scientist believe dark matter is made of weakly interacting massive particles, otherwise known as WIMPs. But nobody knows for certain.

Where Is The Antimatter?

Physicists theorise that the universe is made of 50% matter, and 50% antimatter, but where is all the antimatter. This one of the most fascinating unsolved mysteries of science. When matter and antimatter, which is matter with the opposite properties, make contact with each other, an explosion occurs. This explosion destroys both the matter and antimatter. Yet there is so much more matter than antimatter, and physicists don’t know why yet. One theory is that antimatter decays more quickly than matter, and so a lot of it simply died off on it’s own.

Mysterious Noises From Space

Scientists have discovered strange radio waves coming from space, the origin of which is unknown. 11 years ago scientists were attempting to study early stars, but had trouble making progress because of a loud noise coming from space. The radio waves were 6 times louder then what you would expect and the origin of the noise is completely unknown, but it isn’t coming from anything on earth. Now in 2017 Australian astronomers have discovered the radio signals come from outer-space. The signals were not man made and come from another galaxy. They contain as much energy as the sun releases in 10,000 years. It’s hard to say exactly what caused this but it’s possible it was caused by aliens.

Can We Beat The Speed Of Light?

It’s generally considered that we can’t, and will never be able to go faster than the speed of light. However there is some evidence that shows otherwise. According to the Big Bang Theory, the universe expanded at a speed much faster than the speed of light. Some scientists have also observed that pulses can go at speeds faster than the speed of light. If you wave a torch (flash light) across the sky at night, in theory the light will be travelling faster than the speed of light. This is because the light beam is quickly going from one part of the universe to another. You could send signals faster than the speed of light by using a wormhole.

Does Intelligent Life Exist Off Earth?

Considering how many planets there are in the universe it’s highly unlikely that there isn’t intelligent life out there. There almost certainly is, however how come we have never encountered any. This is what’s known as the Fermi paradox. There is very little evidence that alien life exists, which seems contradictory to the fact that it’s so likely that aliens do exist. There are billions of stars in the universe, and lot of these stars have planets similar to earth orbiting them. It’s highly probable that some of these planets would hold civilisation capable of intergalactic travel, which prompted Enrico Fermi to ask the question during an informal conversation, “Where is everybody?”

Dead Animals

In a state in America called Arkansas, a large group of black birds mysteriously fell from the sky. It was incredibly strange, and the only explanation people could come up with was that fireworks had killed them. But then it happened again, and this time thousands of fish died as well. Unless fireworks were fired into not only the sky, but also the ocean and managed killed thousands of fish, there’s something else going on here. For thousands of birds and fish to suddenly die all at the same time is hard to explain. Until we know the cause it’ll remain one of the unsolved mysteries of science.

Time

Scientists still don’t understand the nature of time. We don’t fully understand the nature of time, and there are many significant mysteries of time. Some of the mysteries could have monumental impacts on the world once finally resolved. One example is time dilation. Time is actually influenced by speed and gravity. The faster something is going the slower it ages. A man could travel out to space for for a relatively short amount of time, maybe 40 years, and arrive back at earth hundreds of years in the future.

Plate Tectonics

Plate Tectonics is the theory that continents were once all joined together in one giant land mass. But over a period of millions of years the land split apart into seven continents and many islands. However nobody actually knows what caused these to move. Some scientists have theorised that it actually happened much more quickly than what was previously thought. And that what caused the plates to move was actually a great flood, although this is unlikely. This is just one idea, and what caused the plates to move is still one of the unsolved mysteries of science.

The Mpemba Effect

Did you know that boiling water can be frozen faster than cold water. This is known as the Mpemba effect, and it’s been baffling scientists for years. It was discovered by the ancient Greeks but only proved by a scientist named Erasto Mpemba in 1969. It was first noticed by Aristotle who said:

“The fact that the water has previously been warmed contributes to its freezing quickly: for so it cools sooner. Hence many people, when they want to cool water quickly, begin by putting it in the sun. So the inhabitants of Pontus when they encamp on the ice to fish (they cut a hole in the ice and then fish) pour warm water round their reeds that it may freeze the quicker, for they use the ice like lead to fix the reeds.” Although many people have suggested solutions there is no consensus on an explanation for the effect.

The Origin Of Life

The origin of life is still one of the great unsolved mysteries of science. Billions of years ago strings of molecules combined to make even bigger strings of molecules. This created amino acids which created DNA, and then life. But what started this process? Well, amino acids are the basic chemical constituents of the protein all living beings use, and this can be synthesized from inorganic compounds. This has been demonstrated under conditions mirroring those of early earth. This could have been triggered by an outside source of energy, like radiation, or lighting. This is just one theory however, and it isn’t certain what the origin of life is. Other theories state that life may have landed on earth from a meteoroid, or asteroid.